Dan Verdick, from Elk River MN, and his 9 year-old son, Ben, fished with us during their vacation to Marathon Florida Keys last year. This time, Dan brought his lovely wife and daughter along, Colene and 14 year-old Hannah.

With the wind kicking up its heels this morning, I opted to fish one of my favorite calm spots near the Seven Mile Bridge, and the fish did not disappoint us! The rod-bending commenced almost immediately upon putting the chum in the water. The crew released a bunch of small grouper and brought back 25 snapper, including their limit of mangroves plus some yellowtails.

We had a pesky barracuda dining on some of our snapper. He made a bad choice, however, when he took a snapper on Ben’s line rigged with wire! Ben did battle with the toothy critter and when we brought it in the boat it was nothing short of about 4 and a half feet of angry fish!

It, too, made the trip back to the dock and is now resting comfortably in my shark bait freezer.

In talking with Dan on the dock, we agreed it’s really more about the family time and less about the fishing … but he won’t tell his kids that just yet!